ABSTRACT
Foxwood was the first comprehensive school in the city. It was planned in the 1950s to serve the council estates, one of which had been designed as a purpose built ghetto, with a high proportion of four and five bedroom houses to meet the needs of so-called problem families. Foxwood was a 12-form entry school, for boys only. The Labour Group on the City Council was startled by its own courage in building a comprehensive school at all; to have made it co-educational as well would have been altogether too daring. All pupils then took the 11-plus, so the school had a ‘selective’ intake of 36 and a ‘non-selective’ intake of over 300, but amongst them were 76 boys with IQs over 110. They were 11+ borderline pupils who travelled a considerable distance to avoid secondary modern education.
